#The Dungeon

Well, it’s been over two weeks since we landed here on our nearly three hour delayed flight on a beautiful Friday the 13th. We were jet-lagged and seriously questioning if nine bags and two cats was a wise decision, but as we entered the ancient city walls from the south, passing the ancient baths, the forum, the Monumento Nazionale, and the flipping Colosseum in the distance, we were awake! All of our scrambling to get everything in order state-side for the past three months was over, and now what was once an abstract possibility four months ago, is our new reality. We are living in Rome! We mentally high-fived , our mission was accomplished, we did it, we were actually making this happen. (Then we got to our temporary lodging and passed out.)

I am thrilled to report that most of the good things you hear about living in Italy are true. The food is so good I could make this entire blog just about the pasta, pizza, cheese, wine, produce, gelato, gnocchi, etc, and have more than enough to talk about. The city is so beautiful and full of so much charm, even with the graffiti, that sometimes the grandeur forces you pause and gawk at whatever ancient marvel is before you and remind yourself how amazing it is that we have the privilege to make this our home. The language, though at times frustrating, is beautiful, and we are starting to pick it up, piece by piece. And the weather, wow, in September, what can I say? Highs of around seventy-eight, breezy, clear skies, it’s beautiful!

Though everything still has that vacation feel, not everything has been Le Dolce Vita. We’ve spent probably the first solid week and a half getting a lot of our paperwork done. Our hasty decision to put learning Italian on the back-burner until we got here may have been ill-advised. And housing has been a truly humbling experience, of course, the Dungeon (temporary lodging) deserves a post of its own, but I won’t go there.

Almost every window in the Dungeon (not the real name) looks like this. And no, it’s not twilight, that picture was taken around noon, at its brightest.

We’re moving out of the Dungeon tomorrow, which we are beyond thrilled about. Our new place has light, transparent windows, and a bathroom window that doesn’t open onto the building’s public laundry room. But to be fair, its clean, in the same neighborhood we are moving to, and was available when we needed it. Just not very homey, more institutional.

I don’t want to make it sound like we haven’t been out though. Here is a sample of what we’ve been up to:

I’m going to post individually about all of this stuff and more so stay tuned.